Nintendo has been dominating the portable gaming market ever
since the release the Game Boy in 1989. And the ironic thing
about it was that it was just a monochrome system that can only
display several colors of gray and black. The competition from
other systems that were color and featured backlights(which
allowed you to play in the dark, something that was missing in
Game Boy) such as Sega's Game Gear. But Nintendo still dominated
the portable market, and improved on it more with the release of
the Super Game Boy, Game Boy Light(featured a back light), and
the Super Game Boy, but things were starting to die down, a new
millenniumwas approaching and gamers wanted more than just a
black and white protable, so finally Nintendo listened and
delivered the Game Boy Color.

It took Nintendo 9 years to finally give the Game Boy a color
make over in 1998. The Game Boy color looked a lot like the Game
Boy Pocket, shape wise any ways, but it was in color, and the
shape of it was just a tad bigger than the Game Boy Pocket. Also
the contrast feature was gone, since now the portable displayed
color graphics there was no need to adjust the contrast. Any ways
the Game Boy Color has been destroying the portable market, and
even more powerful portable such as the Neo Geo Pocket Color, and
the Wonderswan can't even come close to competing against it.

The Game Boy Color got a big facelift in the graphics
department. It can display up to 56 colors at once from a pallet
of thousands of colors to choose from, and it's processor has the
ability to display 8-bit graphics. Not crappy 8-bit graphics like
the NES, but good graphics like the Master System featured. Also
The Game Boy Color can play old Game Boy games to, plus if you
press a button combination at the opening Game Boy screen, you
can set a color tone to the game, making the game appear in
color. Most of the new Game Boy Color games can be played on the
old Game Boys unless the game box is labeled with ''Only for Game
Boy Color.'' Then the game cartridge looks different from other
cartridges by having a clear shape and if you try to use them in
the older Game Boy models model's you'll be prompted with a
message saying this game can only be played on Game Boy Color.

Now you gotta be a little bit forgiving for the sound
capabilities of the Game Boy Color. Let's admit it, even the old
NES couldn't pull off great sound. The same goes for the Game Boy
Color. Most of its games have crappy background music, and
mediocre sound effects. However, there are a couple of games
which prove my opinions wrong with games like Pokemon Yellow and
NFL Blitz which feature digitized voice samples. And the RPG
games tend to feature some good background music as well. But let
me just say this, if you wanna pull off some pretty good music on
the Game Boy Color, you're gonna have to put some effort into it.

The Game Boy Color has a wide variety of games. It has loads
of sports games like yearly Baseball updates of Griffey Baseball
and All-Star Baseball, plus lots of basketball games like In the
Zone, Showtime, and Kobe Bryant's 3-on-3 challenge. Also you got
games in the edutainment department for kids with a few of those
damn stupid learning with Elmo games. You got lots of great
action/adventure 2-D games like the Turok games, Bionic Commando,
Rainbow Six, Castlevania, and Perfect Dark. And don't forget the
RPG department, the Game Boy Color has loads of RPG's, as a
matter of fact I think they have more RPG's than the Nintendo 64!
You got the fantasy Natsume RPG's like Harvest Moon, Legend of
the River King, and Legend of the Sea King, plus sequels are
promised for all these games too. There's also Nintendo's Pokemon
games and the Monster Rancher games, and a lot of other one's
too.

The Game Boy Color has a great amount of 3rd Party support! As
a matter of fact the Game Boy Color has more 3rd party support
than Nintendo 64! Capcom, Eidos, and Namco are releasing more
Game Boy Color titles than N64 titles. Plus the GBC has
publishers like Metro 3D, Majesco, and Vatical, bringing in ports
of popular games like Vigilante 8, and Grand Theft Auto as well
as bringing in it's own games too. Plus all the big company names
make games for it too like Midway, Activision, 3DO, Konami, THQ,
EA Sports, Disney Interactive, and the list goes on and on.

Alright you just got the scoop on the Game Boy Color, now
let's get on to the final ratings rundown: